Jordan Spieth opened the Valero Texas Open with a 5-under 67 and sat among the many prime 5 on the leaderboard. He put himself in a terrific place via 18 holes, hoping that will proceed over the weekend. Spieth has not gained a PGA Tour occasion since 2022, when he gained the RBC Heritage in Hilton Head the week after The Masters.
However Friday’s second spherical set Spieth again a bit. He struggled across the greens, because it all added as much as a 1-over 73. He’s now 4-under for the championship and was 4 strokes again of Keith Mitchell when he walked off the golf course. Mitchell had a day tee time, in order that margin will doubtless enhance by day’s finish.
But, Spieth’s struggles on Friday are nothing new. Outdoors of a 6-under 65 on Friday on the WM Phoenix Open, Spieth has posted just one sub-70 rating through the second spherical this season. His second spherical scoring common is 70.17, which is sweet for 97th on the PGA Tour. He already has two top-10s to his identify this season, and is forty fourth on tour in complete strokes gained, so his total play far outweighs the scores he posted on Friday.
Spieth is aware of that too.
“I’ve acquired to get higher at closing these rounds out on Fridays,” Spieth stated on Friday.
“I had the identical downside occur in Tampa. It’s not like a pattern or something, they only have been random issues every day, and this one occurred to be misjudging chips, which is generally a specialty of mine. I’m just a bit — a little bit, you realize, how do you’re feeling whenever you’re on a foul run of playing cards and like, man, on the final gap I’m like certainly that is going to leap a little bit bit and run after which that one spins. Like I simply by no means would have guessed it could spin. Misjudging them stinks.”
Spieth bogied two of his closing three holes on Friday and missed a six-footer for birdie on the par-5 eighth gap in between. His chip on the ninth gap stopped 13 ft wanting the outlet, and he couldn’t save his par.
“These final three holes [includes a] reachable par-5 off the tee field, and [I had] a fairly good quantity on the final, understanding that the lead’s going to be someplace round 10, perhaps 9, 10 beneath, I actually felt like I wanted to get to 7 to have an opportunity,” Spieth added.
“That’s actually extremely irritating as a result of it’s like these are — they’re proper there.”
Spieth misplaced a stroke across the greens on Friday, rating a hundred and first among the many subject in that metric. Contemplating he has top-of-the-line brief video games on the planet, that’s an eye-opening statistic. However on the identical time, that’s golf. Stuff like that occurs, even for three-time main winners.
But, Spieth is aware of the golf course inside and outside. He gained the 2021 Valero Texas Open and has additionally completed among the many top-10 at TPC San Antonio on three different events, together with final yr.
“It’s not like I come right here and I’m like, ‘Oh, yeah, this appears straightforward for some cause.’ It’s a tough golf course with a premium on placing the ball within the fairway. With the tough so low, a few of these again pin,s it’s virtually higher to be on this tough since you land in the course of the inexperienced and it runs up. The occasions that I’ve truly been within the tough, I’ve truly hit higher method pictures in a bizarre manner. Having stated that, I’d nonetheless take 14 fairways tomorrow,” Spieth stated.
“The opposite factor is you’ve acquired to play within the wind, you’ve acquired to flight the ball some, you’ve acquired to throw some within the air, you’ve acquired to only be a little bit inventive within the peak that you simply hit pictures, typically the curve. It’s usually simply the Texas wind, and the occasions I performed effectively right here I drove it — you realize, I’d been driving it effectively.”
Thus far this week, he has hit 18-of-28 fairways. He has putted effectively too, however as he alluded to, he didn’t end his second spherical on a excessive observe.
That can doubtless come again to hang-out him this weekend, as Spieth must make a transfer up the leaderboard if he needs to return to the winner’s circle once more.
Jack Milko is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Enjoying By way of. Observe him on X @jack_milko.
